'Pepper' traces to Sanskrit 'pippali' (long pepper) — a different species, but the name traveled the same trade route.
A pungent hot-tasting spice made from the dried and crushed berries of a tropical climbing plant, used to flavour food.
From Old English 'pipor' (pepper, the spice), from Latin 'piper' (pepper), from Greek 'péperi' (πέπερι, pepper), from an Indic source — Sanskrit 'pippalī' (पिप्पली, long pepper, Piper longum). Long pepper was the first pepper variety to reach the Mediterranean world via ancient spice trade routes, so its Sanskrit name became the generic European word for the genus. The word traveled through Persian and Aramaic intermediaries before entering Greek. The same borrowing
The Sanskrit word 'pippalī' specifically meant long pepper (Piper longum), not the black pepper (Piper nigrum) we use today. Long pepper was more popular in ancient Rome than black pepper, and it was the first to reach Europe. Black pepper only surpassed it in the medieval period — but it inherited the name, so 'pepper' technically refers to the wrong species.